India vs Netherlands: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and the necessity of ugly runs! – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

As KL Rahul walked back to the SCG pavilion, he looked at the replay of his lbw decision and shook his head. Before crossing the boundary itself, he knew he should have opted for that DRS review. “He isn’t one to waste a review,” said Mike Atherton on air.

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Perhaps that’s what Rohit Sharma thought as well – why waste an early review? From Sharma’s vantage point at the other end, it seemed the ball wouldn’t go down leg side. That’s the disadvantage of asking your partner, for he doesn’t have the umpire’s eye view. To Rahul’s bad luck, even the umpire thought it was going to hit the stumps and raised the finger. Replays thereafter clearly suggested that wasn’t the case – Rahul would have won the review and batted on.

Oh, what he would have given to stay on a bit longer. This is a batter who came into this T20 World Cup on the back of some good form. Despite a long injury layoff, he got into some semblance of touch during the home series against Australia and South Africa.

And yet, arriving on these shores, he has been all at sea. In particular, his dismissal against Pakistan left a lot to be desired, almost reflecting a confused state of mind.

It is why the game against the Netherlands mattered so much. There wasn’t much at stake. India had won the toss and opted to bat. He could have taken his time, got his eye in and feet moving, and then perhaps would have accelerated the way he does against minnows’ bowling. He had even struck a sumptuous four down the ground. But it wasn’t to be.

No net session, or warm-up game, can provide the intensity of a rigorous stay at the crease during an international game. And that is precisely what Rahul was craving — and missed out on. It has been a tale of two indecisions for him so far – one of his own, the other of his partner and the umpire. And so, he now goes to Perth, hoping to get some runs under his belt before the knockouts’ stage.

Rahul wasn’t alone in that desire of staying at the crease. It was the same for his partner, and team captain. That hunger to work it out in the middle, get that sweet timing back, and get some runs under the belt. Rahul would have been disappointed with his dismissal against Pakistan. Sharma definitely was too, and it was written large on his face all of that evening as the camera panned to him. It was time to get things right.

Rohit Sharma scored a fifty against Netherlands but he would be disappointed by the strike rate. AP

Two of his shots stood out in the powerplay. The first was immediately after Rahul’s dismissal, a pull over square leg as Paul van Meekeren decided to test him against the short delivery. Better bowlers have tried and failed, or rather been hit out against. It’s like giving sweets to pets, when a bowler bowls short to Sharma. His eyes light up and his brain automatically makes his arms swing to deposit the ball over the boundary. End result – six!

The other shot was similarly glorious – Bas de Leede bowled a short of length delivery, with enough width, and Sharma just cut it away to the point fence. At that instant, the Indian captain didn’t look out of touch. Like KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, too, came into the tournament with vital runs against Australia and South Africa, and yet has looked a different batsman in the warm-ups and against Pakistan.

There is a common denominator herein, of course. The early summer conditions in Australia, and the accompanying rain, which has made the new ball dance too much. There are quite a few opening and top-order batsmen around who are all global T20 stars (including David Warner and Jos Buttler), and we  are yet to see a smashing knock from any. Rahul and Sharma are afflicted of this new ball issue as well, and for the first time on this trip, they came face-to-face with a batter friendly, almost-dry wicket.

Again, it explained why Rahul was so dejected. It also explained why Sharma went into a mental shell as he was dropped in the fifth over. The word mental is vital herein – given the format, he was always looking to play his shots. But it was an innings that was never in full flow, almost like driving on a road laden with potholes. Every time he played a full-bloodied shot, including two more sixes coming off the meat of his bat, there came a half tracker that Sharma failed to punish.

“Not too happy, but it is important to get runs. It doesn’t matter if they are ugly runs,” Rohit Sharma opined in the post-match interview.

53 off 39 balls – four fours, three sixes – so why was Sharma unhappy? It has to do with the strike rate. Sharma scored at 135.90. Moreover, when he was dismissed, the score read 84/2 in 12 overs. For all their frailties, the Netherlands had managed to contain India’s scoring at seven-per-over.

There is more reason for Sharma’s unhappiness. Since the last T20 World Cup, Sharma has made the conscious call to hit at a higher rate. It has resulted in a lower yield of runs (28 innings) – average 29.07 compared to his career average of 31.88, but the strike rate during this interim has risen to 143.18 over his career (144 innings) of 140.31 SR. Further, on eight occasions when he scored 30-plus runs, his strike-rate soared above 155.

This SR against the Netherlands was only his third lowest with 30-plus runs in the past 12 months. It underlines the philosophy that the Indian skipper has imbibed in his batsmen – to hit out as much as possible. Sharma’s disappointment is more to do with his individual scoring rate than the actual aesthetics of his innings, and that can only be a good thing for Team India.

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